Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Capital is nearing the estimated target of inoculating 8.42 lakh eligible beneficiaries, projected on the basis of the population going by the 2011 Census, with two doses of Covaxin.
Till 9 pm on August 5, 8,34,182 people had received both the jabs. “We expect to attain this target by tomorrow,” Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner (BMC) Sanjay Singh told Odisha Bytes on Friday.
The civic body had earlier claimed to have reached the target to administer 18 lakh doses in the city by July 30.
The shortening queues at the vaccination centres also hint at the same. With Bhubaneswar inching towards saturation, the BMC has announced walk-in facilities at selected UPHCS/UCHCs for the vaccine jabs. All 10 drive-in vaccination centres in Bhubaneswar have been closed and people, who have taken their first dose at these places and missed their second dose, have been asked to visit UPHCs/UCHCs between 29 and 42 days.
The commissioner said hardly 4 per cent to 5 per cent of the eligible beneficiaries are yet to be covered. “Some people have not been able to take the jabs as they are technically not eligible. Those include COVID patients, elderly persons with medical problems and pregnant women for whom the vaccination process started late,” he said.
According to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the COVID-19 vaccine can be deferred by three months after recovery in individuals having lab test proven SARS-2 COVID-19 illness. This is recommended as COVID-infected persons develop antibodies against the virus and these last for almost 16 weeks.
The commissioner further said the study of those infected revealed that 85 per cent of them have been vaccinated. “Almost half of the remaining 15 per cent are children and a majority of others not technically eligible to take the vaccine. It establishes that we have almost touched the entire population of eligible persons,” he maintained.
Most of these people have mild symptoms and are in home isolation, he added.
While the daily caseload is hovering between 200 and 400, Singh stressed there has not been a spike in the new cases despite the opening up of economic activities as is the case with other states. “The infection also is not widespread. The 200 to 300-odd cases detected in a day is confined to around 60 families, where all members have contracted the virus,” he said.
The BMC is resorting to micro-containment measures to contain the spread of the virus, he added.
The active cases tally in the city has touched 2711 with 335 more people testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours. The deadly disease has claimed 866 lives so far.
